Random musings on history, politics, and more

The Army Corps of Engineers has a handy guidebook (2.7MB PDF) on signage, both where and how to place signs on the Corps’ projects, but illustrating the available signs, as well. Some will be familiar to anyone who’s ever been on a military base, or in a national park; others you don’t see so often. A few are just outright funny. Below are three of my favorites…

This, of course, is the sign for “showers”; I presume that’s supposed to be a bar of soap in the person’s hand, but it looks more like a book or pamphlet. (Ten quatloos to the first photoshop wizard who makes this into a “listen to your iPod in the shower” graphic!) Take away the showerhead, friend – I said, take away the showerhead, friend, and, Lord, the graphic would work perfectly well for “impassioned preacher”, praise be, amen!

One you don’t see often at all – the sign for a laundry or laundromat. Well, that’s what the Corps of Engineers says; I think it looks a lot like a sign for “Fisher Price Little People”, sold here. (This is only funny if you’re old enough to remember the early plastic “Little People”, who had no arms and no legs, but some awesomely old-school plastic hair with scalloped bangs. Mmm, Little People bangs…) I think I might have just dated myself a bit, there…

Even less common than the others – the sign for “spelunking”. Amusingly, while there are all sorts of signs in the Corps’ arsenal prohibiting activities – up to and including one for “no wading”, of all things – the government doesn’t seem to have a sign for “no spelunking”. Yay. Nor, alas, do they have a sign for “no long-haired freaky people”…